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Topic: Dana Chevrolet (Read 38545 times)

This was a picture taken at Silverstone in 1967 , shortly after the picture of the car on the London streets. Notice how the Dana Chevrolet was removed, as I believe none of the cars ran logos or sponsorships.Mike-

Ron Tonkin Chevrolet in Portland, Oregon sent two 1967 Z-28s to Dana Chevroletso that Dana could prepare them for competition in Trans-Am and A/Sedan events.Below is a photo of Bob Erickson driving one of the Tonkin cars that was preppedby Dana Chevrolet. This photo is from a support race at a USRRC event at PacificRaceways in Kent, Washington in July '67. In August '67, the two Tonkin Z's wereinvolved in a trailering accident on the way to the Continental Divide Trans-Am andthey never made it to the race. They were sold in 1968 and it's unknown whateverbecame of them.

In February 1968, Pierre Phillips advertised the two Tonkin cars for sale in Competition Press.When I spoke to Pierre a couple of years ago, he didn't remember actually selling either carbut he did remember being there when Guldstrand brought them up to the Portland race track for testing and delivery. Pierre did get to take some hotlaps in at least one of the cars.

Later in '68, August or September, Ron Tonkin placed an ad in Competition Press himself.It appears he is only selling one car here so I assume the other one was sold by then. As Istated earlier, it is currently unknown who got these cars after Tonkin's ownership. If any-body has some knowledge of who got them afterward, please let us know.

Dana also ran a drag program for a Camaro in '67 and also in '68. Here's Dale Armstrong in the orange'68 396 aluminum head (L89) drag car. Dale was from Canada, hence the name "The Canuck" on the car.Photo courtesy of Ron Ogilvie

Here's a fresh Traco engine ready to go into Dick Guldstrand's Camaro back in '67. Notice the RC cast steel bellhousing,the Bill Thomas headers and the Impala or Chevelle shifter, plus other little details. From Popular Hot Rodding, March 1968.

Here's Guldstrand's chief mechanic and best friend Bobby Joe McDonald installing the motor in Dick's car down at the Dana dealership.

That's correct. Both Guldstrand's and Lynch's cars were January-built SS350 cars taken off the Dana lot and converted into Z-28 style race cars.This was told to me personally by Bobby Joe McDonald about 12 years ago. The earliest Z-28 built at the LOS plant that has been found was builtin late February. Dana needed to get started on preparing two cars for Sebring and could not wait around for an LOS-built Z-28 to be made.

I thought the same thing looking at that picture. I wonder why Dana didn't get cars from NOR? Since four of the first eight Z's went to the west coast and their obvious connections it would seem logical. Any idea how they got around the homologation rules?

I have no idea why Dana didn't get cars from Norwood, Ohio like Ron Tonkin Chevrolet and Alan Green Chevrolet did. Maybe it had something to do with them being in California that they couldn't ship in a 49-state car? It was not a problem in SCCA for you to race any model of Camaro as long as you ran it with the 302 engine and everything else about it was legal.